What a person throws away does not belong to him any-more. Case Closed. Next case- Please !

Finders Keepers - Very true.

The fear of the Lord, is the beginning of wisdom !

Well said!  Amen!

A concept based on FEAR is the first non mombo-jumbo logic I heard out of your kind.  Always fear some one who burned women at the stake.  Always fear some one who flooded the planet and murdered everything in site; except the chosen few.  Hell, Hitler has a new idol; he never killed as many Jews as Jesus has.  Frear those who branded women for adultry, but did nothing to the male parder.  Fear the leader that kills children at will; burning them alive. Especially fear the current Rep[rsentative of Jesus; priests. All parents of little boys needs to be smarter and not allow their little precious to be in a room alone with Christs representatives.  FEAR your leader, yuou may wind up being dinner for some lions tomorrow. Fear anything that had the power to cut out you tongue for questioning the illogical begatting role of women.  Fear dancing; it will be your road to hell - hummmmm; actually you won't go to hell, just your imaginary soul.  You?  You'll just rot away!

Everyone is complaining about the Muslims rioting and killing people.  It wasn't oo long ago, those devout Christians were accomplishing the same thing every day.  I know the devout would like to wipe the Mid-Evil times, and the Crusades, from the history books, but they can't.  Even the ignoring of the plight of the Jews by the Pop is acceptable by the fearfull.  Just becareful what wisdom you learn, and which you ignore.  Jim Jones was not an isolated incident.

article said the son was undecided on whether or not he would pursue the claim.  Admittedly, for a 20 year old it would be tempting, but I agree.... The right thing to do would be to just let the claim go and let St. John have the prize.

Too true ...

What is old saying, 'Finders' keepers, LOSER'S weepers!!' 

And the son has NO right to anything from the ticket!!

Tim

just my view!

The lessons of this case are 1)Keep your mouth shut if you find a winning ticket and 2)Treat your tickets like the cash they may be - if you don't like the idea of someone inspecting your discarded ticket and possibly winning something, throw them out at home or rip them up before you toss them.  I don't have a lot of sympathy for someone who "accidently" throws out a winning ticket.

I'm confused, I've read the entire article and I don't see what the Mass lottery has to do with someone throwing away a winning Texas Hold'em scratch off ticket.  I must agree that If he found the ticket, then it's his money case closed

i don't fear my Lord.  he is kind and forgiving.

HAPPY MONDAY "JEFF"

Having read most of the postings on this issue, I fully concurr w/you and a few others. This could have happened to anyone.  Interesting that in Ohio(your home state)had this same sceanrio occurred, the Kevin Donovan might have had a better chance to make a claim.....but, I fully agree with your point....well made

The law disagrees with your view on both points. The one fact about the circumstances of this case that is undisputed is that St John found the ticket, and the laws about found property are clear. St John only becomes the lawful owner of anything he finds if the person who lost it intended to abandon it or doesn't come forward in the period specified by law.

The law is also clear about inheritance, and the son inherits the property of his father based on the father's will or the applicable law if there wasn't a will. That gives him every right to anything he inherited.

Now that Donovan is dead it's going to be difficult for him to testify, but his claim of ownership is already on record. If Donovan was still alive the plaintiff in a lawsuit would have been an idiot who spent $600 on lottery tickets and then managed to lose track of one worth a million dollars, and he probably wouldn't have much sympathy from the jury in comparison to an old guy who found the ticket in the trash. Now the plaintiff in the lawsuit will be some poor 20 year old kid whose father just died, and that's going to get a lot more sympathy from a jury. If St John has a lick of sense he should be eager to just split the winnings and enjoy it before he sees Donovan again and his heirs get to continue the dispute.

Now that would be too sad if St. John ended up dead before having spent one dime of his 'find'

.

Was there a surveillance camera that showed Donovan throwing away the winning ticket or is it just his word that he bought the ticket at the store and he threw it in the store's trash???  Even if a camera shows him in the store buying the ticket, does that necessarily equate he threw it in the trash.  ANY "eyewitnesses" or just his (Donovan's) word?

I would hold out a while longer and see if the family drops the lawsuit now that the guy is dead, and if they persisted I would offer the kid $50k to settle and try to enjoy my last few years, no matter how right and righteous I felt. But if the old guy prefers to stew with his lawyer in the Massachusetts winter instead of being free to walk the warm beaches of Hawaii or wherever else he always wanted to go, that's up to him. I say time is too short when you are 80, and sometimes when you are 49.

The problem I have with these lost and found lawsuits is that whenever you claim to have found money or anything of value, someone will pop up to claim they lost it.  To prove it, if you ever win big on a ticket you bought, just falsely claim you found the ticket. Does anyone doubt there will be someone who is absolutely positively sure you have their winning ticket and who is ready to sue you?

Does anyone doubt there will be someone who is absolutely positively sure you have their winning ticket and who is ready to sue you? "

That's why you don't cave in to tortious "extortion"  ....... paying someone a few $$$$$ to go away when you know they're making a false claim.

Konane, I see your point. I would settle if I was 100% sure that the case would be done by writing a relatively small check and signing a legal document.  But there is no point in settling when by doing so, you are opening the door to more s***bags and shysters threatening more lawsuits if they don't get a similar handout. 

How does the law view precedents set through the "law of custom" in which convenience store owners had allowed St. John to rummage through garbage both in the dumpster outside and/or inside perhaps by "taking out the garbage" for them so he could have at it with what might have been discarded? 

Seems he may have customarily done just that with the blessing of the convenience store owners.

If not they should have told him to cease and desist.  If he continued against their wishes they should have asked the police to give him a warning then had him picked up for trespassing. 

Anyway the first news story seemed to indicate that was the case until fireworks went off by St. John having said he had the winning ticket.  Just perhaps if the truth were known St. John was the very first person to recognize it was a winner and others followed like storm troopers knowing they'd dropped the ball big time.

I fully understand Donovan's son is a legal heir to Donovan's estate, but I still question whether Donovan gave up actual ownership of the winning scratch off by carelessly discarding it into what the convenience store owner had previously set a precedent by delegated their garbage to being public domain when it hit the trash can inside the store.